Who we are

Prof. S. Janakarajan

President

Have been working in water and environment related issues in South India for over 20 years. Have carried out many research projects in several river basins with particular reference to surface and groundwater management, problems of water market, water rights and water laws, implications of rural –urban, and urban and peri-urban water markets, competing demand for water and water pollution and the issue of water governance, groundwater and electricity nexus. In recent times, I have worked extensively on issues relating to water conflict and conflict resolution through multi-stakeholders dialogues with practical interventions in three river basins in Tamil Nadu. I have also completed studies pertaining to solid and bio-medical waste and on urban sewage management. The research project on climate change and adaptation in South Asia was carried out in collaboration with five other institutions in India and Nepal. At the moment I am engaged in a two-year research project on Sustaining Ecology and Environment of Chennai funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Dr. Joyshree Roy

Vice-President

Dr. Joyashree Roy is currently the Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University, Kolkata in India. She initiated and also coordinates the Global Change Programme and Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Project on “Tradition, Social Change, and Sustainable Development: A Holistic Approach” at Jadavpur University. She was a Ford Foundation Post Doctoral Fellow in Environmental Economics at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California , USA.

Dr. Shantha Mohan

Mr. Murali Ramisetty

Dr. Bala Raju Nikku

Dr Nikku is a Senior Lecturer, Universiti Sains, Malaysia. Currently he is coordinating a Himalayan floods project supported by the International Association of Schools of Social Work

E-Learning Resources for Disaster Interventions in Social Work

The Fellowship will allow Dr Nikku to collaborate with academics in the School of Applied Social Sciences and the Institute of Hazard Risk and Resiliance. Dr Nikku proposes to use the Fellowship to prepare e-learning modules for disaster interventions in social work by undertaking an extensive literature review to assess the existing e-learning materials on disasters that are available for a wide variety of stakeholders. Additionally, with the help of International Association of Schools of Social Work he will conduct an online opinion survey among social work educators and practitioners about their use of e-learning with the help of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Federation of Social Workers respectively.

Ms. Nafisa Barot

Executive Member

Nafisa Barot, founder director Utthan, an NGO working on water rights and conflict transformation, completed her bachelors in Food and Nutrition from the MS University Baroda, in 1979 and co-founded Utthan as an NGO committed to demonstrate sustainable, gender-sensitive processes for development ( till 2016 June) and building peoples institutions to organize for their empowerment. Her focal issues of engagement have been water governance and conflict transformation from a perspective of intersectionalities of class, caste, religion and gender.

Nafisa has been a founder member of several forums including Pravah, network of voluntary organizations, technical experts, academicians and planners working on drinking water issues and alternatives at state level; .

Nafisa has many interests including community mobilization and theatre and human rights advocacy for conflict resolution and peace building. She presently undertakes consultancy, training and research as a free-lance expert on water, Gender and conflict transformation.

Dr. Anjal Prakash

Executive Member

Dr Prakash joined ICIMOD as the Programme Coordinator of HI-AWARE in April 2014. He has a PhD in Social/Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. Before joining ICIMOD, Dr Prakash worked as a Senior Fellow at South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERs) based in India. In 2010, he led the multi-country research project ‘Water Security in Periurban South Asia’ funded by IDRC as its South Asia Project Director. In 2012, he became the Executive Director of SaciWATERs.

Dr Prakash has worked in the areas of policy research, advocacy, capacity building, knowledge management, networking, and implementation of large scale and multi-country environmental development projects in South Asia. His expertise are groundwater management, gender, natural resource management, water supply and sanitation, climate change, and adaptation. He has extensive work experience in six South Asian countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. He is the author of The Dark Zone: Groundwater Irrigation, Politics and Social Power in North Gujarat (2005). He also co-edited Interlacing Water and Health: Case Studies from South Asia (2012), Water Resources Policies in South Asia (2013), Globalization of Water Governance in South Asia (2013), and Informing Water Policies in South Asia (2014).

Dr. Ravi Narayanan

Executive Member

Dr. Ravi Narayanan has experience in the corporate sector as well as in the not for profit sector working for international development organizations. He worked in various capacities as India Director, Director International Operations and Asia Director for Action Aid and then as Chief Executive of WaterAid. Currently a Vice Chair of the Asia Pacific Water Forum and a member of the Technical Expert Group on water and sanitation set up by the Government of India. He has been a member of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure (the Camdessus Panel) and the UN Millennium Task Force on Water and Sanitation.

Dr. N.H.Ravindranath

Executive Member

Professor N.H. Ravindranath’s contribution includes firstly, research into various areas of climate change, forests, renewable energy and ecosystem services; secondly, participation in various international and national efforts to address climate change (IPCC, Global Environment Facility, Committees of the Ministries of Environment and Science and Technology, World Bank and UN Agencies); thirdly, creating awareness on the science, impacts, mitigation and adaptation aspects of climate change - nationally and internationally; fourthly, designing climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, and; fifthly, building capacity in institutions to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.